July 3, 2018
Serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Ventura & Clark Counties
Top 10 "Lawsuit Magnet" Mistakes Employers Make and How to Avoid Them

Nearly every day employers nationwide are served with lawsuits from ex-employees or slapped with fines
from governmental agencies. When it comes to human resources, there’s a high cost to getting it wrong!

Join us for this informative 60-minute webinar which will present the top 10 mistakes that employers make that may increase their chances of being hit with an employment-related lawsuit and provides action steps for how to avoid these mistakes.

Monday, July 16th
At a computer near you
11:00 - 12:00 pm PST
FREE for PIASC Members
Speaker: Kristine Kwong, PARTNER at Musick, Peeler & Garnett LLC
Kristine is in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on all aspects of labor and employment counseling, litigation, transactions, executive compensation and executive mobility matters.
Sign our Petition
#StoptheNewsprintTax
Join Printing Industries of America to voice your opposition to tariffs (a.k.a. new taxes) on uncoated groundwood paper today! Sign our petition to let the International Trade Commission know that trade law should not be used to harm the domestic print and publishing industry (which employs over 600,000 workers) just to satisfy the request of one paper producer looking to protect its bottom line.

The unintended consequences of this tariff on the thousands of newspapers, advertising inserts, books, and the companies and workers that manufacture these products must not be ignored.

Stop Tariffs on Printers and Publishers (STOPP) by signing our petition today.
How to Optimize Your Instagram Profile for Business
Want to make a stronger first impression with your Instagram profile?

Wondering how to add branding and personality to your Instagram bio?

#1: Choose a Quality Profile Photo That Reflects Your Branding
First and foremost, your  Instagram  profile photo must represent who you are. For a brand, choose a brand logo that’s instantly recognizable. Your logo is also the easiest solution because it helps you stay visually consistent across all of your channels. However, if you’re an influencer, entrepreneur, or blogger, choose a picture of yourself that communicates who you are and what you do.


Ask the Technical Experts!
One of the benefits of membership is the technical expertise provided by Printing Industries of America. The technical experts of the Center for Technology and Research discuss common production problems and issues.

Q. Why is my UV coating showing a yellowish cast?

A. UV coating normally does not yellow. The most common cause of yellowing of UV coated stocks is excessive heat from the UV dryer. Try cutting back on the amount of energy used in the UV dryer or speed up the press. PIA has a paper and ink lab that can often be used to determine
why problems occurred.
Q. Photoshop has many image sharpening tools, but which one is the best?
A. By far, the tool that offers the most control and yields best results for sharpening images is the Unsharp Mask tool. Unsharp Mask introduces sharpness by evaluating and adjusting the contrast difference between pixels along an edge. These pixels along this edge are made lighter (and/or darker) giving the illusion of sharpness. Unsharp Mask offers three controls:
  • Radius. The Radius setting affects the size of the edge to be enhanced and determines how far out from an edge contrast is increased. This is typically the most critical setting as high amounts can cause unwanted halos, especially in flesh tones. A good starting point for the Radius setting is 1–2 pixels.
  • Amount. Amount determines how much darker and how much lighter the edge borders become where the light and dark pixels meet. A good starting point for the Amount setting is 60%.
  • Threshold. Threshold is the difference in tonal values necessary for pixels to be affected by the sharpening. Low values sharpen more because fewer areas are excluded. Higher threshold values exclude areas of lower contrast. A good starting point for the Threshold setting is 3–4 levels.

Finally, always view images for sharpness in Photoshop at even zoom views, such as 50%, 75%, 100% and so on. Viewing images at any other zoom rate will make the image appear sharper than it actually is when it prints.
Loosen Up a Cramped Office
Do you work in an office that is bursting at the seams with people and equipment? Here are some suggestions to handle the clutter:

  • Evaluate whether you have put enough thought into the placement of new equipment and furniture. It's easy to keep adding people and equipment and furniture. So, it's common to just put these things wherever space is available. This may mean you are not making the best use of available space. Sketch the work area on a piece of paper, then use sticky notes to represent each desk, filing cabinet and other pieces of equipment. Arrange the items on your piece piece of paper to come up with a plan for equipment and people.

  • Look at all the equipment and furniture to see what can be stacked or eliminated. Perhaps two or three people can share a filing cabinet. Maybe there can be a central project area for people to spread out when they need more space for work.

  • Consider whether some people could work from home, even one day a week, to reduce the number of bodies competing for space in the office. That way several people can share the same work station. Limiting the hours that everyone is crowded into the same space would eliminate some of the stress.

4th of July Fun Facts
As everyone knows, Independence Day marks the birthday of the United States of America. But here are some fun facts that you may not know about this patriotic day!

  1. Contrary to popular belief, only two Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The majority of signers penned their signatures on August 2, 1776.
  2. The holiday does not celebrate the signing of the Declaration; it celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress.
  3. In a now-famous letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776, John Adams made a prediction that the “Second Day of July” would be celebrated as American Independence Day, since the Congress had actually voted to sever ties with Great Britain the day before.
  4. Independence Day became a federal holiday in 1870.
  5. Other countries, including Denmark, England, Norway, Portugal and Sweden also celebrate the Fourth of July as a way to bring in American tourists.

Our Offices Will Be Closed, Wednesday July 4th
The PIASC Board of Directors and it's staff wish you a happy and safe 4th of July.
Hand-held Printing Machine Prints Customized Designs Directly on Clothing
Quote of the Week
“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."

~Joseph Campbell